The Rise of the Fall
Author's Notes = This is made in collaboration with Reshouk The Characters and Plot are fictional apart from the main two Minifigs (me, Khathran, and my friend, Reshouk) and are all in certain Factions, so they'll be listed here. Assembly: Blackbrick Sentinel: Reshouk Venture League: Sentrak Paradox: Khathran Chapter 1: Khathran My name is Khathran, for privacy reasons I won't tell you my real name, It's 2015, nearly five years since LEGO Universe opened. I know, I'm a fourteen year old who is still obsessing over a game made for seven year olds that closed three years ago, I'm sad, get over it. Ever since it's closed I've tried getting other games to fill the gap: Minecraft, World of Warcraft, The LEGO Movie Videogame; but none of them fill the gap. I've also tried other attempts to revive LU such as LEGO Nexus Adventures and the LUNI Project, but they all either don't work or are never coming out. My best friend Reshouk has gone to another school and my other friends Sentrakh and BlackBrick have both moved away from my home town. We still keep in touch but we're obviously drifting apart and in a few years we'll barely know each other. The only thing that kept us together is LU and now that it's gone we don't have much to talk about any more. I just wish I could talk to one of the NPCs just one more time... Chapter 2: Duke Exeter This is the personal log of Duke Exeter. My name is Duke Exeter. If anyone later on finds this hidden in a small file hidden on a small computer in the remains of an ancient ruined temple I want them to know what happened. I am one of the founding members of a group called the Nexus Force dedicated to fighting an evil corrupt army known as the Maelstrom. We used to be a proud fighting force with people from another dimension turning themselves into Minifigures to fight the battle. But the portal between our worlds grew unstable and collapsed do now we are a small and unorganised army slowly tiring and falling apart. Our 'temple' Nexus Tower is under heavy attack and I do not think that we will survive more than another month. The shields are slowly deteriorating and due to the lack of imagination out force fields are disappearing. I keep talking to Doctor Overbuild about reopening the portal but he keeps telling me that the maintenance of the portal is mainly controlled by Vanda Darkflame with a little help from him, but... I don't trust Vanda. When we first made the Nexus Force and Doctor Overbuild suggested we bring in Vanda I didn't trust her; however over time she proved herself to be a valuable addition. Now that the bulk of our army has gone and The Maelstrom's power is increasing she is becoming more withdrawn and barely ever speaks. I fear that her connection with the maelstrom is growing and that she is thinking more and more about her Master and his fate and I feel that soon she might join him. I asked Hael Storm on the matter and he said at first the idea seemed ridiculous but if you'd told him ten years ago that Baron Typhonus would try and take over the Universe he would have laughed you off. However I believe that there is always hope and if we believe in ourselves we can overcome evil and destroy the forces that hope to consume our lands before its too late! Chapter 3: Doctor Overbuild Dear Diary, I am Doctor Overbuild and this is a diary of the events that happened after the portal between our two worlds closed. Our imagination is low and there is no more imagination coming in because there is no one building anymore models. I fear for Nexus Tower. We spent so long working on it and I don't want all of the work of myself, my fellow assembly and all the other Nexus Recruits going to waste. I fear for Nexus Naomi... She runs on imagination and as the supplies run low she is starting to glitch. The other day I asked her for the files on my prototype imagination reactor and she started doing the Conga. Although we could survive without her (as her primary program was to help new recruits, which we no longer have) I programmed her to be sentient and she has feelings. I also fear for The Duke. Losing the recruits to him was like losing his family and as the days go by I can see that he is becoming more like he was when we started this adventure: he is untrusting of Vanda and he is spending most of his time with Hael Storm, his long time friend before all this madness happened. I can only hope that we can build a way out of this, my Imagination Reactor may be the answer... Chapter 4: Hael Storm AAAAARRRRRR!!!!!!! THIS BE THE SECRET JOURNAL OF THE MIGHT SPACE PIRATE!!!!!! CAPTAIN HAEL STORM!!!! IF ANY OF YE DECIDE TO PEER INTO THIS HERE JOURNAL OF MINE THEN I SHALL KEELHAUL YE AND FEED YE TO MY PET BIRD. Okay enough with the humour, it get real tiresome talkin' like that all the time. I be Hael Storm and this be my journal of events. I be worried about stuffs 'n' stuffs, same as all me Faction Leader mateys. The Maelstrom is powerful yadda yadda yadda you get the picture. What be the real problem is that we be losin' the other worlds, and we be losin' them quickly. My mateys in Ninjago, Starbase 3001 and Crux Prime say that if any more Stromlin's enter those worlds then we could lose them altogether. Duke Exeter tells me he doesn't trust Vanda and I can't say no to that, she be avoidin' us as much as possible and even The Doctor, who Vanda trusts more than anyone is being avoided by her. Personally I be at a loss at what to do. I may be the main strategist in the Nexus Force but with the Maelstrom growin' stronger and all we need to concentrate on makin' our own planets safe and not findin' new ones, makin' me pretty much useless... Still we may not be the best Faction at this time but we still be a Faction and they may be out of their comfort zone but me Hearties can still help the Sentinels with the battle. Chapter 5: Vanda Darkflame Vanda Darkflame's personal Vlog Start I am Vanda Darkflame. The Leader of the Paradox. One of the Faction Leaders of The Nexus Force. I am compiling this data in the hope that if the Maelstrom does win a small band of resistance could find this in the future and use it to defeat the Maelstrom once and for all. Times are dire, I am working on a new way to open the portal between our world and the world of Nexus Recruits. All of my results are the same as the one before... The portal is unstable and we cannot establish a proper connection without the Maelstrom having access to it and corrupting both our worlds. Doctor Overbuild is helping me but so far all he can do is supply bricks and not much else due to his inexperience with the Maelstrom. Hael Storm tells me that Duke Exeter doesn't trust me. Nothing new there then. I respect Hael and the Doctor has always trusted me when others haven't but Duke has never really trusted me. He came close to it when we were starting to get stronger but that all changed when the Recruits left. I hate to say this but... He's right. I'm starting to have Dark thoughts... I haven't gone near any of my tests because every time I do, I can hear my master's voice... "Come Vanda, you know you can trust me..." NO! HE IS NOT MY MASTER! BARON TYPHONUS WAS MY MASTER! THE DARKITECT IS OUR ENEMY! I will fight to bring The Baron back from the clutches of Darkness. I...will...not...give...in... End. Chapter 6: The Darkitect So... Vanda is still resisting me, she is strong, I taught her well. However I can sense that she is slowly weakening. Soon she will succumb to my power. My army is growing stronger. Although the closing of the portal kept me from extending my power to other worlds it greatly increased my power in this world. Although an army of ants could have hurt me now that the majority of the ants have gone the remaining few can no longer do me any damage. Soon Nexus Tower shall fall and I will destroy what remains of The Nexus Force. Then I shall take control of The Crux System. After that the rest of the Galaxy shall fall to their knees. Who should I attack first? Maybe go for the core of the universe and attack LEGO City, or perhaps I should go after that 'Special' I've heard so much about in Bricksburg. Then again, maybe I could finish off the work of my fallen partner in Ninjago. After that I can force the Ex-Paradox Stromlings to give me the secrets of the gateway to the world of 'Earth'. Until then I shall continue to wear down Vanda's defences. And if she doesn't give me access to hear mind I have another Minifigure who should be interesting to operate on... Chapter 7-1: Captain Jack Knife Ye Diary of Captain Jack Knife, I be the sea captain of the notorious pirates of Crux. That's what I would be sayin' if I 'ad a proper crew. But me ship been marooned bye tha' blasted Kraken and 'alf of me crew 'as been swashbuckled by tha' skurvy Maelstrom. These times be hard as I 'av no more pirates to train in my ways. No more recruits means no one to slash up those Stromlings which means more Maelstrom which means less of me heartie crew and more Stromlings!! I hate to say it but I wish those four namsy-pansy Ninjas hadn't escaped. I could 'ave used their help! Chapter 7-2: Numb Chuck I am Numb Chuck. I am the Ninja Master of Forbidden Valley. Times are hard, without ninjas to train the Maelstrom is getting stronger and I have noticed that even the Great Tree is starting to wither away. I have consulted Kenjin the Wise and he told me not to linger on the past but to learn from it, concentrate on the present and hope for the future. So every day I take Master Fong Shader, Smashmaster Foom, Gathermaster Klex, and Brickmaster Clang down to Cavalry Hill to train. If we cannot have a thousand ninjas, then we will have the strength and skill of a thousand ninjas instead. Despite all this we are still losing and I do not know how long we can hold out. If the dragons escape from their cave we are doomed. I sometimes wish I could use that scoundrel Jack Knife's firepower, I would go down their my self if it wasn't for those ghastly parrots of his! Chapter 8: Khathran Well it's the day before the day LEGO Universe was planned to end. I'm officially going to (metaphorically) hang up my Nexus Force Uniform and try to move on. Then the bell rang. When no one answered I ran to the door to answer but there was no one there. Then I noticed there was a package on the floor so I picked up and read the title: 'To any Nexus Recruit' My heart skipped a beat as I ran upstairs to my room. I was too scared to open it myself so I rang Resh, Sen and Brick and we arranged to meet tomorrow. The next day we meet at my house and look at the packet. "So none of you sent this as a practical joke?" "Didn't do it, now shuddup!" Replied Reshouk "Nope, didn't do it bro." Said Sentrakh "No way Hosé." Was the reply of BlackBrick "Ok then, let's open open it together." We each grabbed a side and ripped to pieces in the struggle to get it open. Inside there was a memory stick that had the written on it 'READ NOW!!' We rushed downstairs and I nearly broke my computer in the rush to turn it on and plug in the memory stick. We opened it and inside there was a file that said 'LEGO Universe' and inside that there were three files: One was a notepad file that said read_me; one was a video file said Shival.log and another was a WinRar file that said LEGO Universe Open. I first read the read_me file which said the following: 'These are my last attempts to Open LEGO Universe. Over the past few months I have been possessed by an urge to reopen the game no matter what and the words "Bob. Bob. Bob." Keep popping into my head. "Holy Brick..." Said BlackBrick "What are the other things?" Asked Reshouk. I clicked on the Shival.log file: It was a video of someone who's face had been pixelised has purple smoke coming off it. "Oh my Bob" "My name is Shival" I know that name! I rack my brains for the answer but Sentrakh gets there before me "It's that Mythran!" "Recently I have been trying to reopen LEGO Universe" I don't know why but I have to. It's like someone is forcing me to. But it hasn't gone well. I have been feeling dark, destructive thoughts. I feel bad. It feels like...like...Maelstrom... I don't know how, I don't know why, but somehow a being from a game I helped to create Is slowly taking control of me. So I'm going to leave this to a true LU fan. I don't know your name. I don't know why I know where you live. All I know is that you live here and you will bring back LEGO Universe. But I warn you, THIS IS DANGEROUS!! YOU SHOULD TURN BACK NOW AND FORGET ABOUT A THAT STUPID GAME!!! But I know you won't... So go to the LEGO Universe Open file, go to Open, then Portal, then ReLaunch.exe and follow the instructions. Good Luck!" "Oh my brick!" Sen says. "OPEN IT! OPEN IT NOW!" Says Resh. Then there is a massive thump on the door and purple smoke starts drifting through the gap... Chapter 9: Duke Exeter This is the personal log of Duke Exeter. I am reporting once again on our situation. We need more resources and our time is slowly running out. The force field dissipated ages ago and all except the last shields have broken down. All of the Sentinals and Assembly left are working around the clock to build more but the Stromlings are destroying quicker that we can build. I fear that Nexus Tower may soon fall to the Maelstrom and but I refuse to think of that possibility; it is to horrific to think of. Doctor Overbuild has as many Assembly as possible helping me but most of them (including the Doctor himself) are working with Vanda on an imagination reactor to stabilise the portal. I just wish Vanda would stop playing around with that stupid toy of hers. I hate to say it but the recruits are gone and there's no way of bringing them back, I just wish her and Vanda would accept that and help with out only help. THOSE BLOCKING SHIELDS!!!! I think that Vanda may be controlling The Doctor. I wouldn't but some minor brainwashing past her. Harl Storm is as helpful as ever though, lending all his troops to help and doing whatever he can to help. Even if it isn't his area of expertise. Really I believe that we are finished. The Nexus Force will die and and The Maelstrom will win. But if we can carry on fighting boldly and valiantly till the very end then we can bite huge chunk in The Darkitect's Side!!! Chapter 10: Doctor Overbuild Dear Diary, Time is low for us, our imagination resources are practically zero, Nexus Naomi is going insane and trying to clean up the Nexus Vaults with Robert the Crate Chicken. I had to temporarily shut her down to protect her and others around her while I work with Vanda on the imagination reactor. It's hard work. Basically any attempt to reopen the portal will cause The Maelstrom to seep through and infect the world of 'Windows' and 'Mac'. My imagination reactor is meant to create a field of imagination around the portal connection reactor to create virtual Mythrans to combat the digitised Maelstrom. But we don't have enough imagination and the reactor core is conflicting with the Paradox disc to create a warphole. We need to maximise the potential energy to form a bond with the 'CD-ROM' Disc of the other world but we don't have enough quantum rods or imagi shards. This would cause the portal to collapse in on itself and merging the two world into a hellish nightmare. It doesn't help that Duke Exeter is trying to get me give him more Assembly to rebuild the shields. I swear all this stress is making him more cranky and untrusting. Doesn't he know those shields won't hold any longer? The truth is we need the recruits, without them we're just a handful of minifigs running around with robot arms and insane birds. I'm worried about Vanda, she seems to have given up hope and is spending all her time on the portal. She doesn't even take breaks to eat or sleep. Hael on the other hand is having his Venture League taking up the place of The Sentinals; seeing as they are all working on the shields Hael is now the bulk of the fighting force, even though they are the smallest faction. What we need now is a miracle. But I believe in miracles and I believe that if I can harness the energy from this combustion brick then I might just be able to bring to this sad and hopeless universe... Chapter 11: Vanda Darkflame Vanda Darkflame's personal Vlog Start We are done, the Nexus Force is finished. No, don't think like that, just concentrate on the job, concentrate on the job. 2x4 here, tubing there, add a plate in there. Just don't don't give up hope. I'm working with Doctor Overbuild to create a clear portal for the recruits. But time is running out. Every few hours the tower shudders and we all fear for our lives. If nothing happens by midnight tomorrow then... No, don't think, just work. If I can just link the magneton twister of the brick stabiliser then then the plate melter could add an extra intelligence brick and control the whole furnace tile. The Doctor's imagination reactor has set us forward two weeks towards completion but we're still ten weeks away from that goal, and we only have 24 hours tops. If it was up to me we would evacuate all the worlds and leave them to the Maelstrom, sneak away and use the last of our resources to secure a Block Yard and stay there until we have a better plan. But that stubborn idiot Duke Exeter won't leave because of that death code called 'honour and chivalry'. What's the point in having a code of honour if if it leaves you to dead to use it? Hael Storm has said that I need to take a look at this part or the Venture Koi that might help me with the building. So I'm going to check it out tomorrow. Hael's helpful like that... I just hope we survive that long. DON'T THINK! JUST WORK! Plate, brick, tile, tube, grill, Don't think work... End Chapter 12: Hael Storm THIS BE MY JOURNAL!!! YADDA YADDA YADDA!!! YOU GET THE IDEA!!! Well, we're all gonna die. Duke Exeter's trying to do the endless and hopeless task of rebuilding the shields while Doctor Squiddy-Arms and ol' Vanda are trying to complete the task of reopening the portal. This I think is a good idea but be takin' WAAAAY to long. So with all these people walking around using up all our resources what am I left doing? RUNNING THE NEXUS FORCE THAT'S WHAT!!!!! This isn't what I'm meant for!!! I'm the explorer, not the accountant!!!!!!! I'm fed up with it. Sure they like to have me around for comic relief and general moral rainsin', but when it comes to actually doin' stuff I'm left out being the leader smallest faction. I'M DONE WITH IT!!!! I'VE GOT A PLAN AND BY BOB I'M ACTUALLY GONNA DO SOMETHIN' OTHER THAN JUST BEIN' THE LEADER OF THE FOURTH FACTION!!! Duke Exeter is me closest friend from even before the Nexus War, Doctor Overbuild is nice an' all but a bit tame an all as well. As for Vanda, well she be shrouded in mystery but when your not wondering what the hell she's doin' she's all right. I need to use all these points to my advantage. I lied to Vanda about a piece for her portal (which is dangerous an' if I get through this she'll probably tear me to pieces). I'm gonna tell Doctor Overbuild that I'm coverin' fer Vanda (that gullible old man 'll believe anything) and I'll send Duke a few of my men to keep 'im happy. I'm gonna put my plan in motion It's time for the Nexus Force to Rise on its Fall... Chapter 13: Stromling We cowered at the door in fear as it started thumping loudly and purple mist began to seep through it. I don't know why my parents hadn't heard it or why someone would want to break into our fairly basic and uninteresting house. All I knew was that there was something trying to get in and it didn't sound friendly. We all screamed as the door split in half and the monstrosity stepped through. I recognised it instantly of course, it was a basic Stromling from LU. But where Stromlings looked cool, comical even, in LEGO; in real life they were the children of nightmares. The thing's flesh (where it had flesh) was tinged dark, horrible purple and one arm, one leg and half its chest was skinned off, leaving behind a purple veined, skeletal waste with bits of purple goo dripping off and vicious, rusted spike protruding from the arm. His face was a horrible mess with no mouth, a gash where it's nose would have been; purple, spiky swirling hair covered its scalp sand its eyes were a satanic, blood red mess that looked like normal eyes that had been turned red, bloodshot then slit open and filled with red bacteria. On the tattered remains of What might have been a suit and tie I could just make out a brick-built badge that said: Shival. The Stromling that was once Shival lunged at us. We were to scared to scream so we just ran as fast as we can away. It was my house so everyone instinctively followed me even though I had no idea what I was doing; we sprinted upstairs before bursting into the attic and scrambling at the window to try and get it open. After it had been wrenched open we trampled each other in a desperate attempt to get through as we jumped onto the roof. We didn't know wether it had followed us so we stopped once we were out of sight and tried to slow down our breath. "What the #V€$ man!? What the ¥@£{!?" "That was, oh god it was a. HOW!? HOW!?" Unfortunately The Stromling had followed us onto the roof. Reshouk jumped off into the garden, followed by me, then BlackBrick. I only heard the screams of Sentrakh. Unfortunately when the Stromling jumped of he landed on BlackBrick, I didn't dare look to see what had happened to him. "The computer!" Yelled Reshouk and I remembered what we were doing before this happened. We crashed through the back door and locked it while we ran into the office and barricaded the door. (Not that it was going to stop it for long) I looked at the computer screen and urgently clicked on the LEGO Universe Open file, there were lots of files I didn't understand so I just opened the Open file, then the Portal file and I opened the ReLaunch.exe file. The door started slamming just as I opened it. It said: establishing connection with a loading bar but luckily it loaded instantly. It then said waiting for second player. "WHAT SECOND PLAYER" I screamed out loud as the door exploded and The Stromling entered before thrusting his blade through Reshouk's chest, purple goo appearing were the blood should be. I saw the screen flash up with the message 'Second Player Found' and then 'Opening Portal' just before I felt a piece of Ice-Cold metal pass through my neck and my vision turning purple. Chapter 14: The Leaders Vanda Darkflame was in the Venture League Observatory tapping her foot impatiently and staring at a note that said 'getting pees from stoor room bak soon.' The bad grammar made her cringe. She didn't have time for this, the largest battle in Nexus history was coming and she hadn't finished the stabiliser piece and she needed to attach the cooling fan and, and, and. Vanda collapsed to one knee, it was all to much for her. "Vanda..." Came the voice in her head. Vanda drew her swords. "I swear to god," she said out loud, "if that idiot isn't back soon..." Doctor Overbuild was gathering all but one if the final bricks in the storeroom for Hael, he didn't know why Vanda let him in on the project as he wasn't the most skilled builder but The Doctor guessed he could add an angle of building they hadn't previously thought of. As Overbuild went to open the door he was puzzled to find it locked. He was puzzled even further to find that once he had disassembled the door he was trapped inside a cage. He could easily break apart the cage but it was rigged up to a trap that would drop a pile of Maelstrom Bricks on him if he moved a brick. The building was awful as there were mismatch colours and bricks sticking out at odd angles, no one in Assembly could have built this. The actual trap, on the other hand, was well designed at plotted out, this was clearly built by a genius who struggled at building. Doctor Overbuild sighed, this would take a while. Duke Exeter was on a balcony overlooking Crux Prime, all the troops had been withdrawn and were now guarding the tower. He wondered how Neido was doing in the Ninjago Monastery Ruins, no one had seen him (or the Skulkins for that matter) in weeks. The Maelstrom cloud that surrounded the place was growing thicker and there was a vast Stromling army heading towards them, stretching as far as the eye could see. Duke new that this was the final stand of the the Nexus Force, he just wished his friends were here with him (even Vanda). Everything they had done, everything that they had achieved, would be crushed under the hand of a man he had once admired. A single studded tear rolled down Duke's Cheek. Hael Storm creeped into the basement underneath Nexus Tower, recruits weren't allowed down here as it contained the core of the Nexus and the Portal Creator. In the middle was a strange silver thing that looked like a 10x10 circular plate but without studs or tubes, it was surrounded by a cage-thing the Hael recognised as the original portal but one of the bricks was infected and if turned on would spread. Beyond that Hael couldn't recognise anything. There was a weird archway that sprayed imagination at the plate, a large claw that span around it and a variety of other spinning and twisting contraptions that made no sense. Then they had obviously started running out of bricks as there was a large array of crudely designed models built out of whatever they could find. Hael walked up to the computer at the side and started trying to find something to do, but he was no computer genius and had no idea what any of the symbols meant. "AARGGH FORGET IT!!!" He cried before drawing his cutlass and slicing the computer to bits. Using the remaining pieces he built a button connected to the power source just as Vanda Darkflame, Duke Exeter, and Doctor Overbuilt burst into the room. Chapter 15: The Portal "Hael don't!" Cried out Duke Exeter "The Portal isn't stable yet!" Came Vanda Darkflame's voice "We just need a bit more time!" Said Doctor Overbuild. "Time?" Said Hael Storm, "You think we have time? This whole tower is gonna come crashing down onto us in any second! The recruits are our only hope! Without them we're toast! I don't care what effects it has, the recruits can fight anything! We have the entire LEGO world depending on us, do you really think the Darkitect will settle for just the Crux System? We have every Minifigures in the Universe depending on us! How did you even know I was here anyway?" "It was obvious that you built the trap and Vanda guessed that you were trying to draw us away from the Portal." Said Overbuild "But that's not the point, the point is The Recruits are all gone and the only thing we can do is fight in their memory." Said Duke. "But we CAN do something about it though! How many Minifigures do we have? 100? 200? How many Stromlings are out there? A thousand? A million? The recruits are our only hope and I tell you, when I die I don't wanna come back as a Stromling!" "Hael please." Begged Vanda "SHUT UP! I'M SICK A' BEIN' TH' FOURTH FACTION' MEMBER! NOBODY REMEMBERS ME! I'M ALWAYS THE FUNNY ONE! EVEN WHEN WE WERE LOOKIN' FOR TH' IMAGINATION NEXUS I WAS ONLY THERE SO TO HELP YA' FIND DUKE! WELL NO MORE! FOR ONCE I'M ACTUALLY GONNA DO SOMETHIN' FER ONCE!" "If you open that portal the whole universe could collapse in on itself!" Warned Vanda. "I DON'T CARE!" Said Hael. He pushed the button. Out of Nowhere Nexus Naomi's voice said: "Second Player found. Opening Portal." Chapter 16: The Merging The first thing that happened was that the cage started spinning and everything that could move was moving. The were fans spinning away, tiles moving up and down, pumps blasting bricks so fast they might explode; the imagination sprayers were growing bigger and bigger. Then the weird 10x10 plate (which Doctor Overbuild later informed Hael Storm was called a CD-ROM) started levitating and glowing with imagination. Then the room flooded with light blue imagination and everyone present felt hope, the feeling of joy and happiness. Their elated feel wast cut short, however when Vanda fell to the ground, crying out in pain. "Vanda!" Cried Doctor Overbuild, catching her in his robotic claws. "What's wrong with her?" Asked Duke. His question was answered when the room flooded with dark, purple energy. Then Nexus Tower exploded. Khathran woke up. How long has it been? Hours? Days? He didn't know. He jerked back in the chair he woke up in when he remembered what had happened. The Stromling, Sentrakh, BlackBrick, Reshouk, Himself. Khathran's hand went to his throat when he remembered his throat had been cut, there was nothing there, not even a mark. The Stromling was gone, and so was Reshouk's Body. He could only hope that was a good thing. It took him a while to come back to his senses realise that he was staring at a computer. He recognised what was on the screen instantly, it was the best thing he could see on a computer screen. He remembered the name and player portrait at the top left; the health and armour bar beneath it; the backpack and passport in the bottom left; the list of abilities along the bottom and, of course, the Minifigure in the centre of the screen. It was his character, Khathran, dressed in full Rank 3 Space Marauder Gear (He had never saved up enough for the valiant weapons). Something was wrong though, he was in a room he didn't recognise and there were brick scattered everywhere. The most disturbing part though, was that the room was filled with purple, Maelstrom gas. But it was it just the room that was filled with Maelstrom, the whole computer was filled with purple gas that stretched out and cloaked the chair Khathran was sitting in, filling the real room with dark, violet mist. Khathran knew there was only one thing to do. He looked up at the computer screen, put his hands on the keyboard and played. Chapter 17: The Darkitect For the first time in his life, Baron Typhonus screamed. He had never felt so overwhelmed. The portal had been reopened, imagination was rushing through and he felt like his stomach was eating it's way out of him. He had felt this feeling before, when the portal had first opened, but there had been no pain, just a tugging feeling in his gut whenever another minifigure joined The Nexus Force. This time, however, he felt it all at once, like fire was coursing through his bricks. His pain turned to fear as he realised that The Nexus Force would soon be back to full power, but then he realised that he had the full power if the Maelstrom at his command and his fear quickly turned into anger as he saw several different Stromlings staring at him in confusion. The Darkitect raised his jewelled sceptre and sent a blast of Maelstrom Energy streaming towards the crowd, obliterating them instantly. After he had managed to calm himself down he felt something he hadn't felt before. The Portal opening had hurt him, but it also released a huge blast of contained Pure Maelstrom that had been trying to go through the Portal before it had closed. Now he had something very precious to him. Vanda. He had her in his hand. If he could do the same to her as he could do to his guest then this could become very interesting. It got better still, the Maelstrom had managed to get through them Portal. The Darkitect grinned. He was in the world that imagination came from. He was in the world of the Mortal Gods, the First Builders. He was on Earth. Bob Bob woke up with a shudder. Maelstrom, Venture Explorer, Minifigures, Sky Lane, Rockets, Imagination. As he slowly regained consciousness his memories came flooding back, the last thing he remembered was the Venture Explorer being torn to pieces by the Eye of the Maelstrom. Sky Lane had managed to escape, while he had personally seen the others get turned into Stromlings, he had to smash them. Now he didn't know where he was, or how he had survived to horrific storm. As he looked around he saw he was in a cave, but it was no regular cave, the walls were dripping with purple, Maelstrom slime, there was no exit in sight and he was surrounded by Stromlings. None of them attacked him for some reason. Bob was one of the first Minifigures in existence, the ambassador of LEGO and the creator of The Mythrans, he was not defenceless. Bob summoned up a huge portion if his imagination and released it in a giant wave. All the Stromlings smashed instantly but the cave held steady. He then built an army of turrets, rocket launchers and structure analysers to try and bring the cave down. However after a deafening concert of gunfire and explosions he had successes in now more than blowing a little dust off the walls. "My dear Bob," came a harsh voice as two dark red eyes opened up within the clouds if Maelstrom smog, "eager to leave so soon? and I had such big plans for you." Excited? Find out what happens in the next story 'The Battle of Phoenix'